And Action! 5 Amazing TV Directors That Keep Us Glued To The Couch

There are a few factors involved in having a successful television show. You need a great script, excellent actors but more importantly, you need a brilliant director.

The men and women who sit behind the lens to orchestrate and choreograph edge-of your seat suspenseful moments, or steamy sex scenes, are all fascinating minds who not only play close attention to detail but know how to give the audience what they want, and just enough of what they don’t know they need to keep them tuning in every week.

At the 45th NAACP Image Awards set to air at 9pm, Feb. 22 on TV One, the directors nominated in the Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series all brought their A-Game to their respective shows. Take a look at why these nominees rock!

Regina King plays top cop Lydia Adams in the TNT hit “SouthLAnd,” but last season she also did double duty and directed the episode, “Off Duty.” In the King-directed episode, Adams is reunited with a man she sent to death row. Throughout the episode, fans are given hints and taps on the shoulder of what appears to be insignificant clues early on during the hour-long show, only for it all to come to a head at the very last moment.

Rob Hardy wears several behind-the-scenes hats as a film producer, screenwriter, television and film director, but he’s successfully made a directorial name for himself in network television with other nominations under his belt. He was a nominee for the HBO Director to Watch Award in 2007 directing an episode of the medical drama “ER.” In the “Carbon Copy” episode of “Criminal Minds,” up for this year’s NAACP award, the plot follows the Behavioral Analysis Unit travels to Philadelphia where a suspect commits crime that replicate crimes the BAU has already solved.

3. Carl Franklin

Claim To Fame: Director; “Devil In A Blue Dress,” and “One True Thing”

NAACP Directorial Nomination: “House of Cards”

It only makes sense Carl Franklin, who’s directed heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, get to direct Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey in one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the season. In “Chapter 11″ of the Netflix hit “House of Cards” viewers see just how blood thirsty the character Frank Underwood (Spacey) is for the vice president seat. In this gripping nominated episode, Underwood gains Congressman Peter Russo’s trust, tries to help the man run for re-election and then sets up his own demise, by driving Russo home, leaving him passed out in a garage with the car running.

4. Ernest Dickerson

Claim To Fame: Director; “Tales From The Crypt” and “Juice”

NAACP Directorial Nomination: “Treme”

No stranger to making classics, Ernest Dickerson directed the “Dippermouth Blues” episode of the HBO series “Treme.” The title of the episode borrows its name from the 1923 Jazz Classic composed by Louis Armstrong and in it, characters Davis McAlry and Janette Desautel spend New Year’s Eve together, where sparks fly. Meanwhile, Terry Colson offers to testify in a case that’s been crippling the New Orleans Police Department.

5. Millicent Shelton

Claim To Fame: Director; “Ride,” “The R. In R&B Video Collection”

NAACP Directorial Nomination: “The Fosters”

This music video and TV director is nominated for the only ABC Family show to be recognized at this year’s NAACP Image Awards show. In the episode, “Clean,” Shelton took the reigns of an emotional storyline where main character and adopted child, Jesus, finally comes face-to-face with his biological parents, but the outcome isn’t quite what he hoped for.

Watch the 45th Annual NAACP Awards LIVE, exclusively on TV One, in a in a two hour special Saturday, February 22 at 9:00 p.m. ET (PT tape-delayed). Before the main event, see the nominees and even more stars grace the red carpet in a one-hour pre-show at 8:00 p.m. ET (PT tape-delayed).